Cataracts and shooting sports

[Jim Watson]

I had my eyes examined last week, age 77 with friends describing their cataract procedures and results to get me motivated. The optometrist said I have some "yellowing" of the lenses that you might call "pre-cataract" but nowhere near real cataracts calling for surgery. My acuity is down, so I will be buying new glasses. I will stay with progressives for daily wear and mono vision shooting glasses, that has worked for me for some time.

I know one dedicated shooter who had mono vision implants with her master eye at intermediate for pistol sights. I do this with shooting glasses but would not want it built in.

A shooter here went distance fixed focus and got a bad installation, so he has one eye very good and one marginal.

Another friend got a distance fixed focus toric (astigmatism correction) implant in the first eye treated, but multifocal in the other. She got Vivity in a last minute change like LL.

Frank made the first choice of intermediate fixed focus I have heard of.

I do not know of anybody selecting close fixed focus, although I am myopic and was built that way, wearing glasses for distance from grammar school until I went presbyopic.

 

[Mike OTDP]

I went through this with both eyes a few years ago.

There are three types of IOL out there. The baseline is monofocal, which sets you up for clear vision at one distance. There are multifocal lenses out there, which are set up to project two images on the retina. One focused for distance, the other for close up, and you hope the brain can make sense of them. The third option is accomodative, which adjusts the focus for distance. The surgeon I went to heard that I was a shooter, and immediately recommended monofocal, to get maximum visual acuity. The multifocals sacrifice acuity, the accomodative lenses weren't offering enough correction (there's a new generation under development that are quite promising). I went ahead and spent the money on LASIK to correct for astigmatism while I was at it.

I didn't get the eyes done at the same time, which meant that for a while I had a left eye that was corrected for distance, the right eye (with cataract) was strongly nearsighted...perfect for reading. This worked pretty well, and I seriously considered doing the right eye for reading distances. However, the FAA does not like this solution for pilots, and I want to get back into that...so I wound up going with distance correction in the IOL.

Distance is probably the right answer, as it buys you the most capability. It gives you reasonable performance from infinity down to about 3 feet. Closer than that, and you really need reading glasses. The good news is that cheap readers will now work for you. Or you can indulge yourself with better readers - even bifocal readers (stop laughing, they're just the ticket for someone working with both a computer and documents).

I can shoot tolerably well without glasses...but for competitive work, I've got a dedicated shooting lens that pulls the focus to my front sight. Standard stuff for anyone in the precision disciplines.

Short form: At this time, I'd recommend monofocal, set for distance. LASIK to tweak it for maximum performance. When the next-generation accomodative IOLs become available, I'd go that route...but they aren't ready yet.

 

[allisd17]

My eyes are a mess; astigmatism, have to use trifocals, cataracts beginning to show up. Probably the most frustrating thing is all the floating spots. Much of the time, when I'm beginning to squeeze the trigger, some amoeba-looking thing floats down into my field of view and totally messes the shot up; I'm not sure if there's anything they can do for those.

 

[Zygodactyl]

I was near sighted all my life. I had my right eye done first. I opted for a far-sighted lens. I was amazed at how clear everything became. I was able to read with my left eye and see distance with my right. I had no trouble adapting to the mono vision as they called it. I didn't really need glasses anymore until my left eye cataracts became worse. I opted for a near sighted lens. I had the same surgeon, but he used a different procedure, using injections instead of the eye drops. Big mistake. I got huge floaters and the lens didn't allow me to read unless the book was further than arms length. It's been frustrating trying to read, even with glasses. As far as shooting. I have trouble seeing the rear sight clearly if its mounted on the barrel. I do all right with a peep sight. The target and front sight are clear.

 

[CapnMac]

Before that, everything had a dingy, yellow cast but I didn't know it because I had nothing to compare it to,

Ophthalmologist on the day-after exam after the first eye, very first thing was to point out the "white" in his lab coat in the corrected eye. That was startling.

 

[LaneP]

I had double cataract surgery in 2017, was legally blind in one eye and the other not far behind. Had the doc replace both lenses with astigmatism correcting one's, but now need readers for close up. Truthfully, it's a challenge to shoot now. With pistols, I can choose to look through readers and see a sharp front sight but very blurry target, or shoot with non-magnifying safety glasses and see a sharp target but the front sight is an unrecognizable blob. I usually use the first method. Just one of those things you learn to deal with I guess.

 

[Johnm1]

Stars are what I noticed the first night after the surgery. I cried 'cause I realized I hadn't seen them for years.

That was my best first impression. I can't remember the timing but shortly after the first or second eye was done I went dove hunting and slept on a cot in the open desert 150 miles from the nearest city. It was just amazing the stars I could see.

 

[JTHunter]

About 7-8 years ago (in my late 50s), the optometrist put me in bifocals, the small "D" type near the bottom. It turned out they were unusable as I had to put a crick in my neck OR lift them up to look through them. Two years later, I went back to single vision lenses. If I need to read fine print, I do so without my classes and can read books, magazines, newspapers, etc., with no trouble. Where I do have a problem is an iron-sighted Marlin .22LR as only one of the three points are in focus, a problem I don't have with my scoped .22LR.
I have been wearing glasses since my 1st grade teacher found I couldn't see what she wrote on the blackboard. Now in my late 60s, my optometrist doesn't feel I need to worry about cataracts for several more years. It may be that the glass lenses I wore for so many years helped to filter out the UV rays that are so detrimental to our eyes. One parent didn't have to have cataract surgery until in their early 80s, so I have some hope.

 

[PWC]

As an off shoot vision discussion; I have a color blind question.

My brother in law on Oregon used to hunt elk with his pastor who was color blind. They both always got their elk because the pastor said he
could "see" the animals against the background. Do any of you experience this, or know of someone who does?

 

[d2wing]

I had both done last year. Since the VA did them my choice was distance or near correction. Since I have always been slightly far sighted, I chose distance and am very happy with it. I do need reading glasses for fine print but I can shoot with only protective lens. If you spend all day on a computer you may want one of each or close up.